Lecture 1
Introduction to Real-Time Interactive 3D Computer Graphics
Interactive Art
Simulation
Virtual
Reality
Themes
- humans
have a long history of trying to create and immerse themselves in
alternate realities
- humans
have a desire to interact with their environment; they seek control,
actuation
- these
desires have pushed technology to be ever more responsive; real-time
- these
desires have pushed previously analog activities into the digital realm
- real-time
interactive technologies have a history that includes the practical and
the whimsical; the entertaining and the contemplative; its not all about
games
Principle Components of Virtual Reality
- immersive
- immerse
1 : to plunge into something that surrounds or covers; especially
: to plunge or dip into a fluid
2 : ENGROSS, ABSORB <completely immersed
in his work>
3 : to baptize by immersion
- novels and films
- wide field of view
- stereo vision
- surround sound
- interactive
- novels and films are
not interactive
- early computer games
such as pong are interactive
- requires real-time
response
- physically intuitive
- viewer centered
perspective
- tracking the head
position and orientation
- reaching and touching
- usually no physical
feedback (haptics)
- walking
- very difficult to
accomplish (navigation)
Virtual Reality Hardware
- Head Mounted Display
- BOOM mounted Display
- Fish Tank
- Projection Based
For projection based systems, some companies that sell these things are:
For Head Mounted Displays, some companies that sell these things are:
and there are other interesting solutions such as the Virtual Retinal Display
Current Uses
- Architectural Walkthroughs
Over 100 CAVE displays in the world
History
1960 - Morton Helig
- Cinematographer
- Wanted to expand on 'cinerama' which had
90 degree field of view (FOV) by shooting with 3 cameras simultaneously
and then synchronized when projected. Academy ratio films typically had 18
degree FOV, and Cinemascope 55 degree (depending on where you sat in the
theatre)
- designed and patented 'the
experience theatre; - 180 degree horizontal and 155 degree vertical. 30
speakers, smell, wind, seats that moved.
- couldn't get funding so he
made the scaled down 'sensorama' - arcade setup with a vibrating
motorcycle seat and handlebars and 2 35mm projectors for stereo and wind
and aromas and stereo sound as viewer moved through prerecorded
experiences.
- patented first head mounted
display - used slides - couldn't get funding.
1965 - Ivan Sutherland
- proposes the 'ultimate display'
which is basically Star Trek's holodeck complete with the computer
controlled generation of matter. "The ultimate display would, of
course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of
matter. ... With appropriate programming such a display could literally be
the Wonderland into which Alice walked"
1966 - Ivan Sutherland
- previously created
'sketchpad'
- created 'Sword of Damocles'
- first HMD
- real-time computer
generated display of wireframe cube with head tracking projected onto
half-silvered mirrors so the cube floats in front of the user in the room
(what we would call augmented reality today.) Two CRTs mounted by the
users head along with other hardware suspended from the ceiling by a
mechanical arm.
1971 - Fred Brooks
- GROPE-II - early
force-feedback system
1975 - Myron Krueger
- VIDEOPLACE - 'artificial
reality' where cameras are used to place people into projected scenes
- image processing used to
track the users in the 2D space
1982 - Thomas Furness III
- VCASS (Visually Coupled
Airborne Systems Simulator)
- 6 degree of freedom HMD
which isolated user from the real world
1984 - Michael McGreevy and friends
- VIVED (Virtual Visual
Environment Display) - created inexpensive HMD with off-the-shelf
components (e.g. sony watchman) - NASA continues to add features: glove,
quad-sound, voice control, etc becomeing the Virtual Interface Environment
Workstation
1985 - Jaron Lanier & VPL research
- first company focused on VR
products
- sold datagloves in 1985 and
eyephones in 1988
1989 - Autodesk
1989 - Fake Space Labs
1992 - Electronic Visualization Laboratory
1995 - Electronic Visualization Laboratory
- development of the
Immersadesk